Heatter-Quigley Productions
Background: Heatter-Quigley Productions was a television production company that was launched in 1960, as a partnership between two former television writers Merrill Heatter and Bob Quigley. It was sold to Filmways in 1966 soon after creating their biggest hit The Hollywood Squares. They also co-produced the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Wacky Races in 1968. In 1981, Heatter and Quigley dissolved their partnership, and was folded into Filmways Television, and then into Orion Television just as Orion Pictures acquired Filmways in 1982. Bob Quigley died on November 27, 1989, at the age of 77, while Heatter continued going solo and produced new game shows during that time under his own production company with the name of "Merrill Heatter Productions, Inc.". Currently, most of the Heatter-Quigley library (with the exception of Wacky Races (owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment)) is owned by MGM Holdings Inc. (July 1, 1960-November 27, 1981) Nickname: "hQ" Logo: Superimposed on the screen or scrolling in the credits is the message arranged thusly: This has been A MERRILL-----------------------BOB-------- HEATTER-------------QUIGLEY Production Between their names is a strange conjoined "hQ" symbol consisting of a lowercase "h" in its upper half and a capital "Q" on the bottom. Variants: *In the early years, the logo was referred as "MERRILL HEATTER---ROBERT QUIGLEY". *A copyright stamp may appear below on some shows. *Later in 1972, the byline "A FILMWAYS COMPANY" byline was added below. *On early seasons of Gambit, the byline was replaced with the text "IN ASSOCIATION WITH FILMWAYS". *On some episodes of Hollywood Squares (mainly 1975 eps.) and High Rollers, the logo is not shown. *On People Will Talk, The Celebrity Game, Shenanigans, P.D.Q, Showdown, and the 1965 pilot of The Hollywood Squares, below the HQ logo, "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" and the Four Star Television logo from the time are shown below, along with a Four Star copyright stamp. However on The Hollywood Squares pilot, it would also feature the text, "AND THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK" below the Four Star logo. *On Funny You Should Ask!!, a 1968-69 ABC game w/Lloyd Thaxton, it appears on a scroll: "This has been a Merrill Heatter-Robert Quigley Production...In Association With The ABC Television Network" (the ABC Circle logo appears in the second part). *On Wacky Races, it appears as: A HANNA-BARBERA PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH HEATTER-QUIGLEY, INC. *On Baffle (later All-Star Baffle), the top byline lacks the words "This has been". *On the pilot episode of Bedtime Stories (after the production slate and before the show's intro), a stylized version of the symbol appears, with the "h" in solid yellow and the "Q" in outlined white. FX/SFX: Often superimposed but occasionally seen scrolling into place as the program ends. Cheesy Factor: The rather bizarre "HQ" symbol. It looks like a lowercase "b" more than a hybrid letter symbol. Music/Sounds/Voice-overs: The closing theme of the show, along with an announcer's spiel over Heatter and Quigley's executive producer credits, like Kenny Williams, who performed those duties for most of H-Q shows, although on Baffle, there is no announcer spiel during the closing credits. There was also no voice-over on the end of Funny You Should Ask!, The Magnificent Marble Machine, and the original 1974-76 edition of High Rollers. On the 1967 game show Temptation, Carl King says the shows' name before he says the rest. Availability: Quite rare. Can seen on Hanna-Barbera cartoon Wacky Races (as an in-credit mention) on Boomerang. As for the original, it's rare and has been seen on the original edition of The Hollywood Squares on GSN (whenever MGM decides to renew their contract with the network). However, the said series can be seen on hulu.com. The original Hollywood Squares (along with whatever is left of Video Village, The Magnificent Marble Machine, and the original editions of Gambit and High Rollers among others due to pre-1978 network videotape archive destruction) is now owned by MGM International Television Distribution. The logo might have also appeared on the 1972 Saturday morning game show Runaround, the 1976 unsold pilot The Confidence Game and the 1981 unsold pilot Casino. A majority of the Shenanigans episodes with the Heatter-Quigley/Four Star combo have been destroyed, so it's considered extinct. Scare Factor: None. Category:MGM Holdings, Inc. Category:MGM Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer